Creswell_Research_Design_ Qualitative Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches 2018 5th Ed

Philosophical Worldviews
Although philosophical ideas remain largely hidden in research (Slife & Williams, 1995), they still influence
the practice of research and need to be identified. We suggest that individuals preparing a research proposal or
plan make explicit the larger philosophical ideas they espouse. This information will help explain why they
chose qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approaches for their research. In writing about worldviews, a
proposal might include a section that addresses the following:
The philosophical worldview proposed in the study
A definition of basic ideas of that worldview
How the worldview shaped their approach to research
We have chosen to use the term worldview as meaning “a basic set of beliefs that guide action” (Guba, 1990,
p. 17). Others have called them paradigms (Lincoln, Lynham, & Guba, 2011; Mertens, 2010); epistemologies
and ontologies (Crotty, 1998), or broadly conceived research methodologies (Neuman, 2009). We see worldviews as
a general philosophical orientation about the world and the nature of research that a researcher brings to a
study. Individuals develop worldviews based on their discipline orientations and research communities,
advisors and mentors, and past research experiences. The types of beliefs held by individual researchers based
on these factors will often lead to embracing a strong qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approach in
their research. Although there is ongoing debate about what worldviews or beliefs researchers bring to inquiry,
we will highlight four that are widely discussed in the literature: postpositivism, constructivism,
transformative, and pragmatism. The major elements of each position are presented in Table 1.1.
The Postpositivist Worldview
The postpositivist assumptions have represented the traditional form of research, and these assumptions hold
true more for quantitative research than qualitative research. This worldview is sometimes called the scientific
method, or doing science research. It is also called positivist/postpositivist research, empirical science, and
postpositivism. This last term is called postpositivism because it represents the thinking after positivism,
challenging the traditional notion of the absolute truth of knowledge (Phillips & Burbules, 2000) and
recognizing that we cannot be absolutely positive about our claims of knowledge when studying the behavior
and actions of humans. The postpositivist tradition comes from 19th-century writers, such as Comte, Mill,
Durkheim, Newton, and Locke (Smith, 1983) and more recently from writers such as Phillips and Burbules
(2000).
Postpositivists hold a deterministic philosophy in which causes (probably) determine effects or outcomes.
Thus, the problems studied by postpositivists reflect the need to identify and assess the causes that influence
outcomes, such as those found in experiments. It is also reductionistic in that the intent is to reduce the ideas
into a small, discrete set to test, such as the variables that comprise hypotheses and research questions. The
knowledge that develops through a postpositivist lens is based on careful observation and measurement of the
objective reality that exists “out there” in the world. Thus, developing numeric measures of observations and
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